Wednesday, 20 October 2010

Hyperinstruments


I've just been introduced to the term "hyperinstrument". Basically, they're expanded musical instruments; "expanded" by technology. 

And I just came across this remarkable video. From 12 mins in, it's really quite incredible, and very moving. This is controversial stuff though: as you'll see if you look at the youtube comments on this video, there's a tussle going on around whether interfaces may "de-skill" musical performance. This isn't a new debate, nor one that's unique to musical performance. In academia it's sometimes called the "hard/soft automation" issue (i.e. does automation remove human capability or build on it?). 


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